The Long Civil War: New Explorations of America’s Enduring Conflict
Document Type
Book Chapter
Publication Date
2021
Department 1
History
Abstract
Election night, November 3, 1964—one hundred years almost to the day since Abraham Lincoln won a decisive reelection victory against his Democratic opponent, General George Brinton McClellan. On a golfing vacation in Augusta, Georgia, Dwight Eisenhower watched the returns come in with increasing discomfort. The incumbent, President Lyndon B. Johnson, did not simply win reelection, he overwhelmed Arizona Republican senator Barry Goldwater, carrying every state outside the deep South except for Arizona. "I had thought," Ike wrote confidently to an associate two days later, "that possibly a few of the central states like Kansas, Nebraska, and Iowa might have gone Republican, but the landslide spared few indeed." [excerpt]
Recommended Citation
Birkner, Michael. "“Dwight Eisenhower and Civil War Legacies.” In The Long Civil War: New Explorations of America’s Enduring Conflict, edited by John David Smith and Raymond Arsenault, 180-197. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2021.
Required Publisher's Statement
The book containing this chapter is available from the publisher's website.